Joshua Ness

I found a job!

Yes, thank you, thank you. Actually, the job found me. A few weeks ago, I was asked by Dynamic Solutions Group to check out a venue in New York City. They were hosting an event for a new client, and they wanted me to verify the amenities of a downtown space. The owner, a friend of mine since 2000, was also in the process of re-branding and launching a new business line for which she needed some social marketing advice. Through progressive conversations, it was also learned that some of her clients were leaning on her to adopt some social engagement strategies into her value proposition.

She’s never had to do that before.

After a few nights of talking about how to implement social marketing into her own re-brand and into her clients’ overall event strategy, it was decided to put me on staff. Here’s the kicker, though: the company is in Vancouver, WA.

I am in New York City.

It turns out this is okay. The tech and social marketing communities in NYC are far and away more active and available than in the Pacific Northwest. With this job, I’m able to flex my creative muscles and help to set marketing strategy, and I’m also in a position to hone my social media skills through lectures, workshops, and networking in the big city. I’m also able to travel.

And I love to travel.

In the past month, I’ve been to Portland, Seattle, Washington DC, and Las Vegas. The rest of the summer will bring Boston, Orlando, and other major cities as we continue to implement social strategy into events and conventions for myriad clients, some of them rather large and influential.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve made it. I moved to New York with no job, no place to live, and only two friends in the city. I’ve since found an apartment in north Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with an awesome roommate, built a social and professional network, and landed a great job where I’m in the room making strategy decisions and influencing the outcomes of major business deals.

Now is when real life begins.

I recently signed on with a luxury lifestyle designer representation agency to develop a social strategy. Their presence in the social sphere was lacking, and they were interested in making inroads and getting an edge on their competitors.

While I was initially brought in to work on a specific client project as an unpaid intern, my focus quickly shifted to macro strategy for the agency as a whole. I offered to lay the foundation for their social media development and to create a detailed social strategy as a pro bono project. The execution of the strategy would be available for cost. I created three separate tiers with three separate price points:

• Community management
• Digital influencer outreach
• PPC targeting for customers and co-branding opportunities

The company owners and managers are currently mulling the cost and benefits of such a strategy. It’s a bit outside the norm for their industry, and direct ROI can be difficult to measure. We’ll see what they decide to do.

Although I’ve been freelancing for the past year, I’m actually trying to get hired on with an agency or a start-up here in New York City. I recently applied for an agency strategist position with NYC Digital, the online outreach department of the City of New York. I would LOVE to work for the city, and I hope to hear back soon regarding my application.

In a related note, Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently announced an initiative to bring more tech start-ups to New York! This video showcases some of the existing talent and reminds would-be entrepreneurs why they should bring their operations to the Big Apple.

I’ve been meeting great people and having an absolute blast since I moved to New York two months ago. Finding the perfect job has been an uphill venture, but it’s building character and helping me to more specifically define who I am and what I want to be doing. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

New York has been good to me so far.

I’ve been doing contract work and have enhanced my profile as a social strategist. I recently received a great review on LinkedIn from a former client, and more people seem to be taking notice. I can only hope that it all results in full-time job offer soon.

I applied recently with some great agencies, including the City of New York’s digital communications office. Let me tell you how much I would love to work for the city. I haven’t heard back yet, but I’m optimistic.

I’ve also been experimenting with personal branding sites. I have an About.me page, a Flavors.me profile, and a listing on BrandYourself.com. Some good traffic is coming my way.

Apartment hunting is going well. Some great places have gotten snatched up while I explored my options, but I’ve seen some really hip neighborhoods and met some cool people. My search has been narrowed down, but I seem to keep raising my budget in hopes of finding a good place. I think it’ll all work out.

This limbo period seems to be coming to an end. I’m happy about that, and I’m excited to see what waits on the other side.

Time has flown!

Since arriving and getting (mostly) settled, I’ve been shaking hands and working on fun projects like a warrior.

• Social Media Week – I volunteered for the whole week. I met some great people and assisted Click3X with their panel and party event.
• FinLitTV – I’ve been talking with the founder and offering some good ideas on how they might approach certain clients with the greatest chance for success.
• Urgent Genius – I collaborated with a team and strategized on several potentially viral concepts. The goal is to create content and see how far it can go in a week.

1. The Fabulous Spiderman
2. Too Soon?
3. Justin Bieber Career Implosion Clock
4. #WhoCaresLohan
5. The Bachelor

• General job hunting – Networking and reading about agencies and start-ups who are looking for social media, strategy, public relations, or account management talent. I’ve become a master at researching firms and their staffs and translating their business goals into cover letter matieral.

I’ve been holding off on some of the more touristy, time-consuming activities here in New York in order to devote enough resources to landing that coveted job. I’m still extremely optimistic!

I was really excited this week for a potential job in New York. Based on the description and my skills and the interviews with five members of the marketing team, I thought I was a great fit.

But I received an email today telling me that I’m not. They were impressed, but they would like to see me in a different position. The problem is that they don’t currently have that perfect position available.

So I’m back to the drawing board. They’re a great company and some great people. I’d be stoked to work with them if anything comes available in the future, but I’m not holding my breath.

I was VERY excited about the prospect of moving to the city. I’ll get there, but it looks like I’ll still be here in Texas when my birthday rolls around at the end of this month. Oh well. There’s always 33!

I recorded a couple videos this week. One of them is a résumé introduction video. It’s bad and I’ll probably re-record it once I get a device that shoots better video than my webcam. It’s posted on my Facebook Social Media Résumé. There’s also a short intro video that’s attached to the QR code on my physical résumé.

Leave me a comment and tell me to stay motivated.

This week was a big week.

• I interviewed with a New York tech firm specializing in health care.
• I had a second interview with the aforementioned firm.
• I procured the entire West Wing series for my viewing pleasure.
• I suspended my CrossFit membership for financial reasons.

The interviews went extremely well, and I presented some new outreach ideas which hadn’t previously been considered by the marketing team. I wanted to send a thank-you note to the five or so people with whom I spoke, but even a rush-delivered card would have arrived next week, and I didn’t wish to wait that long. So I called up a florist in SoHo and told them about my predicament. Since I didn’t want to deliver flowers, they selected a small desk trinket which could be paired with a personalized note. So I sent that. I’m not sure how many people send gifts as a post-interview thank-you, but I hope it was well-received.

If all goes well, I may be moving to the big city before the month is over. This means I’ll be in New York for my birthday on the 29th. I’m grossly unprepared to move, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know approximately five people in the city, two of whom I was with in college, one is a colleague I met online, one is a friend of a friend I partied with in Paris, and the last is a bartender who served me several beers on my last trip in November. Quite a network, I know. If I’m offered the job, I’ll likely pack a couple bags, leave my car here, and get on a jet plane.

In professional news, I completed the web event and contest project I was working on over the holidays, and now I’m just left with the tasks of migrating the community to the main site and writing a case study to present the data. I learned a lot from this experience, and it was neat to work with a client that wasn’t a brick and mortar location with things like store traffic to worry about.

So with any luck, these are the last few entries I will be writing from Texas. Once in the Big Apple, I’ll likely start a new series to document my experiences. I’ll also likely never call it “the Big Apple” ever again.

I’ve been ruminating lately. My experience with a pro bono client has been VERY good so far. I’ve been thinking, however, how their grand social media experiment can be taken to the next level. Unfortunately, this experiment is just that: an experiment. They want to see what a minimal amount of digital media will do to sales and physical store traffic. They don’t have an interactive blog, so there’s not much of a destination to which I can drive virtual traffic. I load the Facebook fan page with interactive content, though, so at least we’re getting people talking and clicking. And it’s working.

I’ve been cogitating lately. I have not applied to many positions in the past two weeks, mostly because I have not been satisfied with the current iteration of my résumé and cover letter. I have, however, made significant changes lately. Dramatic changes. I’ve basically rewritten both documents from scratch. Yes, I’m aware that each piece should be exclusive to each application, but there is something resembling a template which I modify in my creative process. I plan to submit it to several agencies in New York, San Francisco, and Dallas this week. I’ve also looked into joining more professional organizations and obtaining one or two more certifications. Finding a good job is expensive! I’m having a lot of fun with it, though.

I’ve been pondering lately. My skill set, while not holistically exquisite, is significant in its parts. I enjoy the idea of reaching out to people and not only to a market. My degrees in finance and economics have trained me to view data as a quantified source of information by which I can alter courses of action. However, my colors seem to come through most when I’m put in front of people and am given reign to schmooze. Yes, I said it: schmooze. This seems to be the reason I enjoy using social media as a means of connecting WITH people, and not advertising AT them.

I believe, however, that social media managers should be versed in strategy and not just in front-end marketing. Without knowledge of where consumers are spending their time and how they prefer to interact with a particular firm, all the SEO and PPC knowledge in the world isn’t going to make for a good campaign. I recently participated in a Community Managers chat on Twitter (#CMGRchat) and my belief was confirmed by one of the hosts. That was satisfying.

I’m spending this coming weekend in New York. It’s Kelli’s super-birthday (11/11/11), and we’re going to paint the town red. If all goes well, I will likely return soon to put boots on the ground and start some conversations with community managers and media directors. I’m ready to make this happen.

It’s been busy couple of weeks!

I’ve been learning more about social media marketing and management through online research and attending Social Media Boot Camp For CEOs. This was a class hosted by Splash Media from Addison, TX, free of charge, to show owners and operators of small-to-medium sized businesses how they’re missing out by ignoring the effects that social media can have on their firms. Most of the information was old hat to a seasoned social media pro like myself. Hey… stop laughing.

But seriously. I learned a bit. I took some notes. I spoke to a few people. Someone looked at my networking card and said “…but you already do this.” I replied in the affirmative, and qualified it by saying I’m looking to learn more and perhaps join forces with a good digital marketing firm like Splash Media.

This has, however, proven to be more difficult than I originally anticipated when I responded to their call for new Social Media Managers in early August. Despite numerous attempts to reach out to recruiters and managers at Splash Media via several different mediums (E-mail, Twitter, LinkedIn), no one at the company will respond to me or even acknowledge that I have tried to make contact.

I have finally taken this as a sign. I am not meant to work for Splash Media. The cherry on top came with this photo I found in their BAM! catalog. This isn’t an environment in which I’d like to spend my creative hours. I will focus more of my attention on boutique firms which will hopefully harbor a more receptive demeanor.

In the meantime, I have taken another step in my quest to become a digital media manager: I have taken on a pro bono client! It’s a small establishment just outside of town that is attempting to obtain a larger market share of the younger population here in this college hamlet. I have set up and consolidated all of their social media channels, claimed their location-based social media pages, and have begun interacting with the community to promote brand recognition. While most businesses are simply not engaging in pre-existing conversations about their products and services, this shop was not being talked about at all! I’ve started that conversation, and things are rapidly picking up speed. I’m very excited to be working with them, and I think we’ll both be happy with the results of the case study when it is written at the end of November.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. I also had a conversation with an old friend who has proven to be very successful in her line of work. She has been inspirational.

Until next time, ladies and gentlemen. Keep up the good work!

My name is Joshua Ness, and I am a creative, results-oriented individual with a passion for social media and business! I am very interested in putting my skills and knowledge to use with your firm as your new Social Media Manager.

I am a graduate from the University of North Texas with a degree in Finance. For the university’s Alumni Association, I established and grew the position of Social Media Manager, as well as developed strategic social media platforms to create meaningful engagement as President of the Student Body. Furthermore, I actively keep abreast of the latest developments and trends of the social media ecosystem by interacting with other social media professionals via networking events, Twitter, and blogs.

In addition to my experience with public relations and online/offline marketing, I have spent significant time writing press releases and community focused editorial content. I have also displayed a strong editorial instinct when developing and delivering engaging messages using existing and emerging communication technologies.

As a leader engaged in social and traditional media, I have seen first-hand how these information distribution channels have impacted business relationships with customers. I understand and appreciate the value of a consistent, goal-oriented message, and I have applied this knowledge in order to achieve objectives of growth, competitiveness, and profitability for the various organizations I have assisted.

I have a proven record of applied leadership, long-range thinking, and intelligent risk-taking yielding tangible results. I have learned through experience to perform with an attitude of eagerness and accountability, and I am excited to apply my energetic work ethic to assist your firm in expanding the reach of its clients and driving engagement within its community.

I am enthusiastic about relocating for a considerable opportunity.  More information about my social media presence can be found by visiting http://about.me/jcness

I can be reached at jcness@gmail.com and am available to interview at any time. I look forward to the thrilling prospect of becoming a part of your team!